Author Archives: William Ramp

“I called, ‘Perky! Perky, come here!’ There was instant silence, and then, a second later, the dogs broke and scattered as if driven by some devil wind. All except one, who came trotting over to me, ears down, tail wagging. Perky. She and I walked back out of the darkened field; I held her by […]

“What parts of your day offer you the possibility of a tiny hiatus; unused time to pull over, stop, look around? In your ecumene, where do things past drift past use and awareness to the corners of household, social or industrial geographies: surplus, uncollected, collected only for disposal? The image of the car isn’t a […]

“I am known for walking with my eyes to the ground. This may be taken by some as evidence of my melancholy character. To my Edwardian great-aunts, it would have been evidence of future posture and moral problems; a sign that I might not be fit for the muscular, Christian manhood that the imperial projects […]

“Even in these early pastorals, ghosts threaten quietude. Storm clouds loom; wind tosses trees; a farmer looks anxiously at the sky; a horse and cart are rendered by trick of perspective tiny and vulnerable under a brooding penumbra of woods and dusk. It is as if there is a knowing nod here to a reckoning; […]

“Give us back our missing and murdered; our bruised, destroyed, humiliated and disappointed; those of ours who were and are lost strangers in their own land. Give us back our walking and eating and hunting and dreaming in this land and on the seas that claim us. We reclaim them from you and your history […]

“I’m writing this while listening to news of devastating fires in California. Climate change has made catastrophic fire events a new normal in Western North America. Every household is now urged to put together a ‘go bag’ or ‘bug out bag’ against potential evacuation, including identification and ownership documents and family photos. These days, as […]

“Cut flowers are often left at gravesites and at locations where sudden death has taken place. Their cutting and consequent wilting provides a symbolic parallel to the ephemerality of human existence and of the ties we make in our mortal lives. To be born is not only to leave the womb but to be severed […]

“As they age, both women and men now become less visible, if at different rates and to different degrees. (It is likely that those egotistical and misogynistic men who aggressively deny that this process applies to them are driven by a repressed and powerful fear of it, just as were the men who used vanitas […]

“Mansfield’s note, then, speaks of more than the universal love triangle. It also sounds out from the now-silent world of the early 20s in Europe and urban America; one in which moral, class and artistic certainties had been shattered by war, though they were still clung to by churchmen and the old families, and brandished […]

“There were fishing folk online, and their love of and longing for the boats and the water was palpable and poetic. What little I knew of tug crews from my early life had been different: these could be hard men; rough, no-nonsense and quick with profanity when a lubber or another boat got in their […]